Early career

McCarthy held an administrative job in the early years of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, where she learned about computers. “I was exposed to the most bleeding-edge technology and everybody in that environment had a point of view to add, whether you were a tenured professor, or, like me, a glorified secretary — it was all part of the mix. That was my first exposure to a barrier-free environment.” This experience led her to the MIT Community Players which was her first exposure to the idea of theater as a potential career. After that she worked with an experimental theater company, the Pilgrim Theater Research and Performance Collaborative. While stage managing for them at the Edinburgh Festival it became clear to her that she wished to pursue a career in theater. She eventually worked her way to New York City working as a design assistant to noted projection designer Wendall K. Harrington through whose studio many of today's top projection design practitioners have passed. This is where she saw her varied interests in technology, art, design, photography, architecture, film and theater come together in one discipline, projection design for theater.”^[2]

She has since gone on to work with a diverse group of notable directors including Leonard Foglia, Michael Greif, Kristin Hanggi, Andrei Konchalovsky, James Lapine, Joe Mantello, Michael Mayer, Dejan Miladinović, Mike Nichols, Jack O'Brien, Diane Paulus, Tim Robbins, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, John Tillinger and Rob Urbinati.^[3]

Broadway

She has many Broadway productions to her credit including After the Fall (2004 revival), Good Vibrations, The Green Bird, Judgment at Nuremberg,^[4] the Tony Award nominated productions of Man Of La Mancha (2002 Revival)^[1] and Wicked^[5] (the 4th longest-running Broadway show^[6] and the 11th longest-running West End show) as well as the Tony Award winning productions of Into The Woods (2002 Revival), Assassins and Monty Python's Spamalot.^[7]

Opera

She designed projections for Tan Dun's adaptation of The Peony Pavilion at the Wiener Festwochen^[8] as well as Tchaikovsky´s Mazeppa^[9][10] and the Andrei Konchalovsky directed production of Prokofiev's War and Peace,^[11] both co-productions of the Kirov Opera at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She recently designed Alfredo Catalani's La Wally^[12] and Tchaikovsky's rarely performed Iolanta^[13] for The Dallas Opera.

In August 2015 McCarthy designed projections for the world premiere of the new opera Cold Mountain composed by Jennifer Higdon with a libretto by Gene Scheer at the Santa Fe Opera.^[14]

In the Fall of 2015 McCarthy returned to the Dallas Opera to design projections for the world premier production of Great Scott, a new opera by Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally directed by Jack O'Brien with Sets and Costumes by Bob Crowley and Lighting by Brian MacDevitt .^[15]

McCarthy designed projections for the world premiere of Jake Heggie's new opera It's a Wonderful Life for the Houston Grand Opera December 2016. The production was directed by Leonard Foglia with Sets by Robert Brill, Lighting by Brian Nason and Costumes by David C. Woolard.^[16]

Off Broadway and Regional

Late summer 2016 McCarthy designed projections for the New England premier production of Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, created, written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith in Boston at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) then it moved to New York City's Second Stage Theater that fall. Directed by Leonard Foglia with Set design by Riccardo Hernandez, costume design by Ann Hould-Ward, lighting design by Howell Binkley^[17]

Fall 2018 McCarthy designed projections for Gloria: A Life, the story of Gloria Steinem at the Daryl Roth Theatre starring Christine Lahti in the title role. It is written by Email Mann and directed by Diane Paulus with scenic design by Amy Rubin, costume design by Jessica Jahn, lighting design by Jeanette Yew and sound design by Leah Gelpe.^[18]

Recent and planned projects

McCarthy will design sets and projections for the world premiere of Joby Talbot's new opera The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for the Dallas Opera, originally scheduled for the 2020-21 season but postponed until fall of 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[19] The production will be directed by Leonard Foglia with Lighting by Gavin Swift and Costumes by David C. Woolard.^[20]

McCarthy designed the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's performance of Haydn: The Creation presented in May 2023. Conducted by Robert Spano.^[21]

McCarthy is a frequent collaborator with Director Leonard Foglia. She designed projections for his Off-Broadway production The Stendhal Syndrome;^[22] his Broadway productions Thurgood,^[23] and The People in the Picture;^[24] and his production of the Opera's Dead Man Walking^[25] for the New York City Opera as well as the World Premiere productions of Moby-Dick^[26] and Everest^[27] for the Dallas Opera and El Pasado Nunca se Termina for the Lyric Opera of Chicago for which she designed both Sets and Projections. “What Elaine is able to do,” he says, “is to use my ideas as a departure for her own creativity. She will take my ideas and lift it out to a level I could never have imagined. It's what I pray every designer will do.”^[1]

Academic

McCarthy is currently an Adjunct instructor at Boston University College of Fine Arts, Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts and Texas State University. She was previously a Lecturer in Design at the Yale University School of Drama^[28] and an Adjunct Instructor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and has been a guest lecturer at City University of New York College of Technology, Pace University, University of Alabama, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Wesleyan University, University of Wisconsin, and numerous others.

She has also appeared as a guest speaker at the USITT Conference,^[29] Live Design's L.D.I.^[30] and Opera America's Opera Conference.

McCarthy is a member of United Scenic Artists local 829 and USITT and was a Lucille Lortel Award voter 2019-2022.^[29] McCarthy is an Associate Volunteer for as well as a member of the Steering Committee of The 1/52 Project, founded by Scenic designer Beowulf Boritt in 2022 as a financial grant program financed and run by working designers to encourage early career designers from historically excluded groups.^[31]